


Tradición

by moosh



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Pepperony Gift Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 08:23:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17179361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moosh/pseuds/moosh
Summary: Tony shares a Christmas tradition from his childhood with Pepper.Written for the 2018 Pepperony Gift Exchange organized by the lovely folks over at Daily Pepperony on tumblr!





	Tradición

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SelenitaLunar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SelenitaLunar/gifts).



Pepper snuggled into her blanket and took a sip of tea as she watched large snowflakes blanket the compound. Having spent most of her life living in Southern California, she was still fascinated by the beauty of falling snow. It made everything seem magical, even the rather bleak Avengers Compound.

Their apartment at the Compound was not her favorite. While it was well-decorated, spacious, and very private it never felt like _home._ It was just a place that they’d stay when it was necessary. However, with the sale of the tower and Tony dragging his feet about whether he wanted to buy another place in Manhattan or build something on Long Island, they’d found themselves in a bit of a housing limbo. Tony had suggested the house in Monaco for the Winter, but Pepper didn’t really fancy a flight in an Iron Man suit to her office in New York every morning, so to the Compound it was.

Tony knew that it wasn’t her favorite, so he was trying his very best to make it feel warm and homey for Christmas. He’d had all their decorations from the tower brought over as well as a few boxes from storage which were carefully labeled in Maria Stark’s perfect penmanship. While he maintained that he was not a nostalgic person, you’d be hard pressed to find any evidence of that when watching him sit in the middle of the floor surrounded by treasures from his childhood.

Pepper didn’t really have any of those. Nearly everything she owned with any sort of sentimental value had been destroyed along with the house in Malibu, not that there was much from her childhood anyway. She’d left home at 18 and never looked back, escaping with only a handful of photos and a teddy bear. Those were all gone now though and watching him go through the boxes filled her with longing and a little pang of jealousy.

Not that she necessarily missed _her_ family, she just longed for that sense of history. That sense of tradition. She knew that Tony’s childhood was far from ideal but being raised by Howard Stark sounded like a cakewalk compared to what she dealt with.

“Oh man, look how cute I was!” Tony smiled, tossing and old, handmade ornament onto her lap. At the center was a photograph of a 4-year-old Tony surrounded by a popsicle stick frame that was painted red and green.

“A bit low-tech for you, isn’t it?”

“Well, they didn’t have a welder in my pre-school classroom.” Tony quipped with a shrug before turning his attention back to the box in front of him.

Pepper studied the photo for a moment before setting it next to her and taking another sip of her tea. “What’s that?” She asked, noticing Tony looking intently at a bit of red and black fabric in his hands.

“It’s a hat.” He chuckled, holding it up to reveal a small red pointed cap with a black brim.

“From what?”

“I don’t – god, I don’t even know how to – wait! FRIDAY, what day is it?”

“Saturday, December 9th, sir.”

“Damn, we’re a day late. FRIDAY, tell Dum-E to get a chainsaw ready.” Tony suddenly stood up, still clutching the hat.

“Chainsaw? Tony, we already have 4 trees in the apartment we don’t need another.”

“It’s not for a tree. You know how you said you wished we had more holiday traditions? Have I got a _doozy_ for you, Potts! Want to come out to the woods with me? We need a log.”

“A log? I – no, it’s _blizzarding_ outside.”

“It’s not that bad, don’t be such a wuss. You love snow.”

“I love looking at it.”

“Fine, stay here, snuggle up. Turn on a bad Hallmark movie. I’ll be back in a bit.” He said leaning down and planting an excited kiss on her forehead.

Pepper did have FRIDAY pull up a movie from the “Christmas Trash” collection, but instead of snuggling further into her sofa crease, she stood up and grabbed a few of the ornaments Tony had pulled from the boxes. As she hung them up she paused for a moment to admire the popsicle stick ornament again. It was just so _normal._ It was hard to imagine Tony Stark sitting down and making this, even as a 3-year-old. She was sure that Howard scoffed at it, but bet that Maria hung it dead center on the tree.

A little while later, after the ornaments had been hung and Pepper was back under her blanket with a fresh cup of tea, Tony reappeared carrying a log and an Iron Man blanket. He took a seat on the floor next to the fireplace and motioned for her to join him. As she stood up she noticed that there was a lot more going on with the log than she initially realized.

It was about 18 inches long and one end of it had a weird little face painted on it. The eyes were big and wide, the nose was made from a small red screwdriver handle, and the alarmingly large red smile stretched out all the way across the face. There were two smaller sticks attached to the underside, like legs, to prop it up.

Tony set it down next to the fireplace and draped the red and gold Iron Man blanket over its’ back.

“What on Earth is that?” Pepper asked walking towards them.

“This is a _Caga Tio._ ” Tony stated very matter-of-factly, while pulling the red and black hat from earlier out of the front pocket of his hoodie.

“And what, exactly, does a Caga Tio do?” Pepper teased, taking a seat on the floor across from Tony.

Tony placed the hat on the log and laughed. “Ok, I would like to preface this by saying that everything that I’m about to tell you is 100% true.”

Well now Pepper was intrigued. “Go on.”

“So, Caga Tio. It’s a Spanish thing. A Catalan thing, really. The Carbonells on mom’s side were all from Barcelona, so this comes from them. Caga Tio literally means, well, _poop log_ , and he poops out presents for you on Christmas Eve.”

Pepper blinked. “Seriously? “

“Yes.” Tony smiled, producing a clementine orange from his pocket. He began to peel it as he continued to speak. “Every night after dinner you need a feed him some of your scraps, traditionally orange peels though we usually fed him whatever mom and I baked that day. She always said that _better food meant better presents._ We’re starting a day late though, so we’ve got a bit of catching up to do.”

Pepper chuckled as Tony finished peeling the clementine. He handed her half and deposited the peel in front of Tio.

“Getting him to poop though is the best part.” Tony garbled out around a mouthful of fruit.

“Oh yeah?”

He swallowed. “There’s a song, which I kinda remember. Something about not pooping out sardines? I’ll have to look it up. But, so you sing it while hitting the log with a stick and – “

“I’m sorry, did you say we need to hit it with a stick?” Pepper asked while popping a clementine segment into her mouth.

“Yup. It encourages better pooping.”

“Well maybe I should keep a stick like that in the bathroom for you.” She teased.

“Hey you can hit me any time you’d like.” Tony said with a wink, causing Pepper to roll her eyes. “But yeah, so that’s Tio. Just have to keep him warm and fed and then sing him a song and smack him around a bit to get your presents.”

“I’m not singing to that thing.”

“Oh yes you are. You want presents, don’t you? Mom even got Dad to sing a few times after loading him up with spiked eggnog.”

“Well we’ll see what happens after a few glasses of wine.”

“That’s my girl.” Tony stood and started rummaging through another box. He returned and handed Pepper a framed photograph. “Just in case you didn’t believe that this was a thing we did.”

It was a photo of a very young Tony, his mother, and a Caga Tio in what looked like their house on Long Island. Tony was wearing a bright red sweater and clutching a stick. Maria had her arm around Tony, holding him close. She was wearing a dark green dress and a gorgeous multi-colored pearl necklace.

“Your mother was so beautiful. And I love her necklace.”

“I think it was her mothers. She wore it a lot. I – I wish you could’ve met her. You two would’ve loved each other.”

Tony’s tone had grown a bit sad. Pepper set up the photo next to Tio and placed a hand on his knee. “I’m sure we would have. Come on, let’s go make lunch. We’ve got to feed our new festive pet.”

Tony and Pepper grew quite fond of the new addition, leaving him scraps and talking to him as if he was FRIDAY or one of the bots. Pepper was a bit skeptical at first, but very quickly learned to love their new little tradition of leaving him food after dinner and having a good laugh about it. She even had Tony videocall her when she was out of town.

Pepper also learned a lot about Maria Carbonell Stark. Tony never really spoke about her much – honestly, you’d think that both she and Tony were born at the age of 21 with how little either spoke of their childhood – but feeding scraps of food to a dressed-up hunk of wood in their living room allowed him to lower his guard a little bit. Pepper learned that Maria’s favorite color was blue and that she loved coffee. She also loved musicals and used to take Tony to Broadway shows all the time. And she loved having fresh flowers in the house and had a large green house at the Long Island mansion.

Just little things that helped Pepper understand both Maria and Tony a bit better.

On Christmas Eve Pepper collapsed onto the couch in her and Tony’s private living room, having finally escaped the Compound Christmas Party that was still raging somewhere down below. She kicked off her heels and asked FRIDAY to send up one of the bots with a bottle of wine.

She heard footsteps approaching from the hallway and turned to see Tony entering the room.

“Hey. You all right?”

“Yeah, it was just time to go home. You didn’t have to leave though.”

“No, it was time to go. It’s getting weird down there. Plus, we’ve got some business to take care of.”

Pepper smiled, finally noticing that he was carrying a stick. “Tio time?”

“You know it!” Tony beamed, offering a hand to help her stand up.

She held onto his hand as they crossed the living room toward the fireplace where she knelt down and placed a hand on the logs’ back. “Hey buddy, I’m sorry about this. I don’t generally condone violence as a means for personal gain, but your time has come.”

“I’m actually going to miss the little guy.”

“We don’t _have_ turn burn him. We could just tuck him away with the rest of the decorations.”

“No way, we have to burn him. But first you’ve got to get your presents. FRIDAY! Hit it.”

The room filled with the sound of what Pepper assumed was the Caga Tio song. Tony hummed along as he pulled Pepper up onto her feet and handed Pepper the stick. “This isn’t _exactly_ the song mom taught me, but it’s sung by Norah Jones, which is weird, but I know you like her. Get to it, Pep!”

Pepper looked down at the log and gave it a light tap. Tony raised his eyebrows at her.

“Fiiine.” She sighed in feigned desperation. She turned and gave it a few very big whacks, which caused her and Tony to erupt into a fit of giggles.

“FRIDAY, kill the music.” Tony huffed out between laughs.

“This is ridiculous, where are my presents?”

“He can’t poop with an audience! You need to go out into the hallway and pray until I tell you to come back in.”

“Oh really? Subtle. What am I supposed to pray for?”

“Good presents.”

“Ah yes, ‘tis the reason for the season.”

“Exactly. Come on.” Tony said ushering her to the hallway. “I’ll tell you when to come back in.”

Pepper stood in the hallway for a few moments, not praying but humming the Caga Tio song which was now stuck in her head. When she followed Tony back into the living room she immediately noticed a large bump under the Iron Man blanket covering the log. She sat down and pulled back the blanket, revealing what looked like a small, ornate treasure chest the size of a shoebox. Tony looked a little nervous as she pulled it into her lap.

“I uh – so it’s kinda big and it’s not candy, but I figured you’ve got like 44 Tio-less Christmases to make up for and I know it’s _weird_ that this is supposed to have been pooped out or whatever but I think it’s appropriate and I think mom would’ve thought it was funny.” Tony spouted out quickly.

Pepper opened the box and gasped. It was jewelry box which was full to the brim. Every compartment she opened revealed more and more gold and silver and diamonds and rubies and sapphires and pearls. Everything was beautiful, from the simple to the ridiculously ornate. Right at the top was the necklace that Maria was wearing in the photograph of her and Tony.  She ran her fingers over the gorgeous, colorful pearls and looked up at Tony, who seemed very interested in his shoes at the moment.

“Tony – is this – you can’t give me this, this is your mother’s.”

“I know, that’s why I want you to have it. I – I was just going to get the necklace, because you said you liked it but then I found _everything,_ and I figured it should be worn or at least looked at occasionally. She always said I should give it all to my daughter if I ever had one, but I know she would’ve loved you like a daughter if she was here so – so yeah. I think – I know - she would’ve wanted you to have it. Merry Christmas.”

Tony finally looked up and met Pepper’s glassy eyes as he finished speaking.

“Thank you, Tony. I don’t know what to say. It’s all so beautiful. I’ll cherish it. And if we ever have a daughter, I’m sure she will too.”

“Or a son who’s really into drag. Also, I used to _borrow_ my great grandmother’s diamond studs in the 80’s when I had my ears pierced so I’m sure our kid’ll appreciate it no matter what.”

Pepper sniffled through a laugh. “You’re right.”

“Anyway, enough with this mushy shit.” Tony said standing up and quickly wiping his eyes. He picked up Tio and carefully stripped him of his hat, nose and blanket.

“Time to say goodbye, Pep.”

Pepper set down the jewelry box and stood next to Tony in front of the fire. “It’s been nice knowing ya, log.” She said, patting his head one last time.

“Thanks for the memories, buddy. See you next year.”

Tony tossed Tio in the fire and turned to pull Pepper into an embrace. “Merry Christmas, Pepper.”

“Merry Christmas, Tony. Thank you again for the jewelry. And for the Caga Tio. And for making this place feel like home. Really. I – “ Pepper stopped and chewed on her bottom lip for a moment. “I don’t have anything from my family. No traditions. No heirlooms. I don’t even have pictures anymore, so it’s just nice to have that sense of history. That sense of – belonging, I guess? I don’t know. Just, thank you.”

“I’m glad the Catalan Shit Log brought you so much joy this Holiday Season.”

“Tony, I’m trying to be serious here.”

“I know, I know. I’m glad you like the jewelry and I’m glad that I was able to share a bit more of my mother with you. We’ll keep doing it and we’ll share it with our kids. And we’ll make our own traditions and our own history.”

Pepper leaned in and gave him a kiss. “Speaking of history – “ She said, pulling away. “I’m going to need pictures of you in diamond earrings. You got any of those laying around?”

“No, but I’m willing to make a trip into storage if you’re willing to brave the snow.”

“Mm, maybe tomorrow. For now, I think we should drink a few bottles of wine and fool around.”

Tony smirked. “Even better.”


End file.
